Infections - Over Rated?

[warra48]

I would love to brew on my back deck, which is huge, and 2/3 of it under cover. However, I am too scared to do it, as I have 5 fruit trees within 10 metres of the back of the house, backed up by a vegetable garden. I just feel the chances of some wild yeast floating about are too great.
Hence I brew in my garage, downstairs. I use an immersion chiller, and usually have my wort into the fermenter within about a hour, and pitch my starter then. I ferment and bottle down there as well. Fortunately, I have never had an infection problem ever with any of my brews. Let's hope it continues.

 

[wimbymoonshine]

ok say every brew is slightly infected.

When i talk infection I would say something that makes the beer smell/taste funky and not just sublte 'off' notes.

I dont think i've brewed a beer yet that was 'perfect' but im not putting this down to infections. Perhaps not so fresh ingredients and the actual recipe itself.

Lets face it, kit beers and even partials are great but its hard to get them exactly how you want?

 

[Darren]

An infection is what you can taste if you try to make a light lager but dont like the underlying flavour.

cheers

Darren

 

[petesbrew]

A bit of a bad year for me. I believe I've had a few infections this year with my beers. My latest entry in a comp came back with the results "INFECTED".

My latest 2 beers have been partials (me being a K&K brewer) and I haven't been too happy with the results, considering the time and effort put in. The arse end of a stubby blew out last week. Lucky for me the cleanup was pretty small, but it is a huge wakeup call. Looked at the remaining bottles, and there's a ring around the neck. Cracked one open on saturday and it gushed forth... bummer.
That said, I'm glad I gave partials a go, but I must not be so lax with cutting corners and my sanitation. Might go back to K&K for a while and sort myself out!

One last thing, So you find out your beer is infected, but if it still tastes "alright", can you still drink it?

 

[matti]

the most wasted day of all is the one in which we have not laughed

I like you signature

Yes you can drink infected beer. Just be prepared to run if you need to go :lol:

warrenl63

Yes I agree with all that you say. I am going to slow down and go for quality rather then quantity and see if that improve my methods.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

One last thing, So you find out your beer is infected, but if it still tastes "alright", can you still drink it?

Basically, there is nothihng that can kill you or make you seriously ill, that can also survive in fermented beer... If you want ot drink it, go ahead and do it.

A lambic is nothing really but a beer that has been deliberately infected with a few of teh more common beer spoilage oragnisms. They may taste weird, but they don't hurt you.

 

[petesbrew]

Basically, there is nothihng that can kill you or make you seriously ill, that can also survive in fermented beer... If you want ot drink it, go ahead and do it.

A lambic is nothing really but a beer that has been deliberately infected with a few of teh more common beer spoilage oragnisms. They may taste weird, but they don't hurt you.

Kinda what I was thinking, Thirsty.
I'm not really one to chuck a beer down the drain straight away... give it a few months in the garage at least.